Tag Archives: immune system

Yoga Combats Fibromyalgia

According to new research conducted at Oregon Health & Science University, yoga exercises may have the power to combat fibromyalgia — a medical disorder characterized by chronic widespread pain. The research is being published in the November 10 edition of the journal Pain and will appear online Thursday, Oct. 14. Fibromyalgia is a syndrome predominantly characterized by muscle [...]

Sex Differences and Vaccine Response

Biological differences between the sexes could be a significant predictor of responses to vaccines, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. They examined published data from numerous adult and child vaccine trials and found that sex is a fundamental, but often overlooked predictor of vaccine response that could help predict [...]

Do women need such big flu shots?

Dr. Sabra L. Klein, an assistant professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Phyllis Greenberger, the president and chief executive of the nonprofit Society for Women’s Health Research, recently wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times called, “Do Women Need Such Big Flu Shots?“. [...]

Science Mini-Lesson: X chromosome inactivation

In a recent post called, “Autoimmunity and Gender”, we mentioned that one reason women are more prone to autoimmune disorders, or those conditions where the body’s immune system attacks its own cells, is because of chromosomal influence, but we didn’t elaborate. If you’re guessing that it has something to do with the sex chromosomes, the [...]

Autoimmunity Disorders and Gender

The NIH has a pretty cool monthly podcast called “Pinn Point on Women’s Health,” which is hosted by Dr. Vivian Pinn, director of the NIH’s Office of Research on Women’s Health. For September, the topic was Autoimmune Disease in women (NIH summary and directions for downloading the podcast can be found here.) The topic is [...]